Responsible for a string of award-winning films and TV commercials featuring breathtaking photography, Alastair’s trademark style – interlacing stunning scenery with intimate human stories – has made him one of the most sought-after adventure film-makers in the business.
His work has been broadcast on the BBC, Discovery UK and National Geographic US, and has featured on the Red Bull Explorers series.
witch country
Alastair has more than 100 international awards to his name, capped in May 2013 with one of the top awards in his industry: the Grand Prize from the International Alliance for Mountain Film at the Trento Film Festival.
Pendle
Alastair Lee is a director, cameraman and photographer who special ises in filming some of the most spectacular landscapes on the planet. With a career spanning twenty years, he is a veteran of expeditions to some of the most extreme environments on earth: Baffin Island, the Venezuelan jungle and Antarctica.
Lancashire-based multi-award-winning photographer and film-maker Alastair Lee once again turns his lens to his spiritual home: Pendle Hill. After the success of Alastair’s previous local publications, Forgotten Landscape (2004) and Pendle, Landscape of History and Home (2009) comes the third and most atmospheric collection of images to date: Pendle: Witch Country.
Pe n d l e w i t c h
This evocative new book traces the contours of East Lancashire’s most distinctive landmark to revisit the infamous events that took place under its brooding presence in the seventeenth century, before chronicling the evolution of the vibrant communities that now flourish beneath its flanks. Celebrating the independent spirit of these upland dwellers and intimately capturing how Pendlefolk interact with this epic landscape, the pages of this illuminating book are permeated with the flora, fauna, farming and the very fabric of the hill – along with the occasional whisper of witchcraft.
c o u n t r y
Praise for Alastair’s previous portraits of Pendle: ‘ They’re not just pretty pictures but images that speak of a fundamental appreciation of the hills as a refuge from the world and a visionary vantage point, a unique wild character in the landscapes of our imagi nation. Our relationships with place are particular, personal and intimate. Lee’s climbing colleagues in countries with vast mountain ranges may not understand the British fondness for enigmatic lumps and nub-ends of hills sticking out of the countryside, but we have always loved them.’ The Guardian
Alastair Lee
Front cover – The famous backdrop to the Lancashire witch assemblies: Pendle Hill shrouded in mist on a spring morning accompanied by the rare natural phenomena of a fogbow (see also page 146). Back cover – The whisper of witchcraft captured near Roughlee in Pendle. Photography by Alastair Lee – alastairleephotography.co.uk
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Alastair Lee
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‘She liued in the Forrest of Pendle, amongst this wicked company of dangerous Witches.’ – The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster, Thomas Potts, 1613
For Carol Carysforth who believed in the magic within us all.
First published in 2019 by Vertebrate Publishing. VERTEBRATE PUBLISHING Crescent House, 228 Psalter Lane, Sheffield S11 8UT, United Kingdom. www.v-publishing.co.uk Copyright © Alastair Lee 2019. Alastair Lee has asserted his rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as author of this work. This book is a work of non-fiction. The author has stated to the publishers that, except in such minor respects not affecting the substantial accuracy of the work, the contents of the book are true. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978-1-911342-95-3 (Hardback) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means – graphic, electronic, or mechanised, including photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems – without the written permission of the publisher. Every effort has been made to obtain the necessary permissions with reference to copyright material, both illustrative and quoted. We apologise for any omissions in this respect and will be pleased to make the appropriate acknowledgements in any future edition. Written, photographed and designed by Alastair Lee – www.alastairleephotography.co.uk Production by Vertebrate Publishing – www.v-publishing.co.uk Vertebrate Publishing is committed to printing on paper from sustainable sources.
Printed and bound in China by Latitude Press Ltd.
Half-title page – An avenue of trees and hedge rows creates an evocative image in the autumn light; a horseback rider wouldn’t be out of place on this path found near Roughlee. Previous pages – An iridescent Pendle Hill at first light. Shafts of light in the Ribble Valley. Clearing mists from Pendle Hill. Mist lingers in the Salter foth valley. Pendle Hill from Weets. Pendle’s big end. Mist burns over a Pendle farmhouse. This page – The fringe of a westerly weather front moves over East Lancashire at sunrise on a late November morning. Captured from the summit of Weets Hill.
A Dark Corner ...................................... 13 Wonderfull Discoveries .......................... 23 Take to the Hills .................................... 47 Forest of Pendle .................................. 71 Keepers of the Region ......................... 93 Pendle Hill ......................................... 123
A Dark Corner
P
endle is an area best known for its association with the controversial witch trials of 1612; a damp, dark corner of East Lancashire. It is a modest location overshadowed by the grandeur of the tourist-laden Lake District to the north, while to the north-east the famous peaks and caves of the Yorkshire Dales draw the crowds. To the south it is simply ignored in favour of its close relations in the Peak District. However, this isolated outlier of an uprising in the landscape has seen it all. It has weathered battles, withstood invasions, survived witchcraft, witnessed religious visions and scientific experiments. It’s even overseen a revolution of the industrial kind. These once-wild hills on the road to nowhere remain resolute for those that hold the landscape close to their hearts. The area now known as the Forest of Pendle, with its centrepiece being the outstanding Pendle Hill, is not a location that springs to mind when we think of classic English natural wonders. What we shall see in the pages that follow are lands not only worthy of their title of Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, but a place of great variety, a microcosm of everything that is quintessentially English about a landscape: subtle, impassive, atmospheric, beautiful, at times spectacular, but most of all inspiring. Steeped in history, aesthetically pleasing and criss-crossed by dozens of footpaths, the Pendle region is a well-trodden landscape with much to offer. We can learn and wonder about times gone by; how different its appearance would have been centuries ago when the majority of the views would have been obscured by dense woodland, which would in fact have made getting a good view a rare thing. The landscape lets us engage in a multitude of physical activities, whether hiking, birdwatching or something more extreme like climbing or paragliding, all are windows of opportunity to reconnect with nature – and in turn ourselves. The Pendle landscape allows us to experience the feeling of a much larger and more remote place than its location would suggest. Wild winds, exposure, and extensive views are aplenty while remaining in relative safety. Even on the remotest of moorland locations you’re never too far from an open fire and a good pint.
Previous page – Pendle emerges from the darkness as seen from Rylstone moor. Right – Snow-blasted and weather-ravaged hawthorn trees lead to one of Pendle Hill’s most dramatic slopes: the north side as seen near Rimington, Ribble Valley.
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PENDLE – witch country
The unusual geography laid down by great rivers many millennia ago have resulted in a visual treat for the view-bagger and photographer alike. The multitude of smaller rolling hills offer a seemingly endless raft of van tage points from which to look for new horizons or to go on to explore the microvalleys and hedgerows so embedded in the landscape. The area has a reputation for grey skies and rain. The saying goes ‘if you can see Pendle Hill it’s about to rain and if you can’t see Pendle it is already raining’. This is absolute nonsense, no doubt conjured up by people who spend too long indoors and aren’t actively engaging with the fresh air. England is part of an island which sticks its nose into one of the largest oceans on the planet. We therefore have a maritime climate, which means there is one thing you can be very certain of as far as the weather is concerned: change. Whatever it’s doing, it won’t last for long. This is a great opportunity for the hiker, nature enthusiast or landscape plodder; the conditions one can experience around Pendle are simply as good as anything you will see anywhere in the world. Pendle has a well-publicised, rich and varied history which has much more breadth than just witches or the industrial revolution, both so fitting for the damp climate. It is a landscape that has inspired free thinkers in both politics and religion: from local suffragist Selena Cooper of Barnoldswick – one of four women selected to present the ‘votes for women’ campaign to the prime minister in 1910 – to well-known radical preachers like George Fox. Great writers, artists and athletes have also been inspired, such as Tolkien, who often visited Stonyhurst College which sits under Pendle’s gaze. Modern paragliding athletes and a clutch of talented artists have all developed and bloomed in Pendle’s shadow. Its location off the beaten track has always made for the perfect place where one can think outside the box and hone one’s craft.
Right – Clitheroe Castle, built in the twelfth century and originally the property of the de Lacy family who first enclosed the region as a deer-hunting area.
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PENDLE – witch country